Game streaming startup Loco lays off 40 staffers

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Loco, a gaming-focused streaming platform, has laid off around 40, or 36%, of its 110 employees.

The company announced the layoffs during a town hall meeting with employees on Wednesday, even as it plans to expand operations overseas. Anirudh Pandita and Ashwin Suresh, the founders, told employees that the layoffs are part of the firm’s restructuring strategy, said people aware of the matter.

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Loco founders confirmed the matter. “As part of a recent strategic review, we have decided to focus on transaction-based monetisation and operate with a leaner cost structure. This decision has been taken to ensure the long-term health and sustainability of our company,” the founders said in a statement to ET.

Going forward, Loco will solely focus on core objectives like monetisation. “We’ve retained just enough people to pursue core functions. So now we won’t spend time pursuing non-core initiatives for the short term, like all kinds of experiments that we were previously doing,” said Suresh.

According to multiple Loco employees ET spoke to, the company’s daily active user (DAUs) base has seen a dip recently, its launch of the VIP programme is yet to generate noteworthy interest from users and the number of fake users or bots has been on the rise. For companies in gaming and social media, DAUs and monthly active users (MAUs) keep fluctuating.

Suresh, however, refuted any drop in Loco's DAU. “Our metrics have grown significantly over the last two months